A lost Arcadia for Art education: The rise and fall of Art Ed/UK… Professor Tom Davies

Wholearth/histories

This paper is a reflective commentary on thepre-millennium fervour for guiding the evolving National Curriculum for Art (1990s) and how this maybe contrasted with the current state of play in 2015. In the past the promotion of the established ‘principles and practices’ of art, craft and design had secured appropriate coverage but this appears to be increasingly unsustainable. The current faltering curriculum provision for Art follows further Government intervention in 2014 and a detectable narrowing of the priorities for schools. If advocacy for Art’s contribution to a broad and balanced education is insufficient, what evidence can be used to support creative aspirations? By its very nature, ‘knowing and understanding’ in the creative process is achieved through a gradual and personal development of the confidence and competence associated with experiential learning. A threshold to ‘troublesome knowledge’ and self discovery